About a year ago, the news broke that Kristen Stewart would be playing Joan Jett in a film about the Runaways. When Dakota Fanning was cast as lead singer Cherie Currie, we got a movie starlet combo made of glittery, glam rock gold. And the woman behind the spandex, leather, and sequins is costume designer Carol Beadle.

After having won awards for costuming and styling music videos for names as huge as David Bowie, The Killers, and Marilyn Manson, costuming a film about rock and roll chicks would be a natural extension of her professional aesthetic and personal style.

Beadle got her start in the mid-90s, reworking and
reinventing vintage clothing for music videos on a shoestring budget. Word about her crafty styling skills spread and musicians such as Marilyn Manson and Alanis Morissette sought her out.  “Even
though I have larger budgets to work with now, I continue to update
secondhand and vintage garments,” says Beadle. “It’s a fantastic way to
create interesting couture costumes.”

I was flattered that Carol agreed to an interview with Debutante Clothing. Carol talks about 1970s fashion, musicians turned designers, and Cherie Currie’s thoughts on the costuming for Dakota Fanning!

Finding great vintage seems to be getting harder. Is there still good 70s stuff out there? What was your experience like?

It’s getting harder and harder for sure. I would come across some things, but you really have to pick through things to find the special stuff. Although for a while there was tons of 70s stuff. But now the 80s are really big so there isn’t much 70s on the floors at the vintage stores.

You use a lot of vintage in your costume designs. Do you
personally wear vintage?

I used to wear vintage a lot. Now I wear a few vintage pieces mixed with more
fashion forward designers. I still use a lot of vintage for costumes though.

What were some of your favorite vintage pieces for the film?

I really liked the blue velvet jacket with the stars on it. Some of Dakota’s pieces were my favorite. Dakota wears this halter jumpsuit with gold piping down the side.

It sounds like Dakota’s character, Cherie Currie, was your favorite to costume…

I think it’s because I dressed her the way I think I would’ve dressed at that time. Sandy was a bit tougher, a bit more tomboy. Lita had bigger breasts than I personally had. I felt closer to that way of dressing.

Cherie was the more glamorous one…

Yeah. Exactly. I loved Joan or Kristen’s costumes, but her wardrobe didn’t change quite as much. I loved her T-shirts – I would’ve worn those in a second. I was way more punk. My musical interests were more like Joan Jett’s probably. So I don’t know why I loved Dakota’s costumes so much. They just really appealed to me.

How have Joan Jett and Cherie Currie reacted to their portrayals? Did they have any input in the costuming?

They didn’t have any input actually. Joan was there every day. She was nodding and she never said, Oh that’s not right. Cherie wasn’t there every day but there were times when she would come up to me and say, “My god, you just nailed it. I wore all of this stuff. You got it!” And I’m thinking, Ok, I just had Cherie Currie tell me it was right. It doesn’t get much better than that.

The next day she came with her personal Bowie belt. These were special things – these buttons and belts that you had in the 70s. These special treasures that we made. It was so DIY.

Do you think The Runaways will influence designers and contemporary fashion like Mad Men did?

Honestly, I feel like we’ve seen this look already. I don’t think designers will really be influenced. Maybe the younger designers and kids. I personally like high waisted jeans. I think girls look good in them so it would be nice to see those. It would be great to see teens and those in their early 20s get into satin, high waisted pants tucked into some of these platforms that are out right now because they saw it in The Runaways. That would be cool. That’s exciting to me. Maybe that will happen, but I don’t know how far this will touch people.

You’ve worked with a lot of great musicians – David Bowie, the Killers. How do you approach costuming musicians differently from actors?

When I’m costuming a film, it’s about telling a story with the costumes. Music videos are more about the visual.

How do you feel about musicians who become fashion designers?

I would rather know who is the designer behind the musical artist
because I really don’t believe they are doing it. I think it’s a
collaboration. I know Gwen Stefani is not doing that all on her own. I
think it’s great if they lend their name and face to it and put up all
the money. I think that’s awesome. I’m not a big fan. Unless you can
prove it, I’m not a fan of people who claim they can do everything. I
believe they can sing or play guitar and that they have great style, but
99% of the time there is going to be a stylist or designer behind them
so I’d be more interested in seeing them put out a line of clothing.

You can see a video interview with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart about their experience with the costumes of The Runaways on Elle.com.

Have you seen the movie yet? Tell me what you thought?